Pugs! And Bugs!

When I was approached 2009 and asked work with children's book author, Carolyn Crimi, I jumped at the chance! Being a huge fan of her work, I was honored to be asked to illustrate one of her amazing books. The title? Pugs In a Bug (yes, VW bug!). The concept and script is incredibly fun, full of life and really let me go to town with color, landscapes, characters, details, etc. After about 2 years of concept art to sketches to final, it was completed last week!

I don't think I can say too much right now, but I was given permission to share some of the painted images/spreads from the book (above, one below). All the art was painted with Gouache and animation paint on heavy watercolor paper. 

Below is some of the rough concept art I worked out at the start of the project: some color background thumbnails and a character design. There is a ton more, I'll post in the future!  Pugs in a Bug will be out Spring 2012, written by author Carolyn Crimi and published by Dial Books for Young Readers.

Art shows, new paintings and an interview

To kick things off for March, I was asked to contribute some art for a Tarot themed show over at Bear And Bird Gallery. The opening is March 5th and there are a ton of great artists involved. The flier and info is below:

I'll be involved in a few shows over at 1988 Gallery starting in the coming summer months. I'm looking forward to sharing the themes of the shows and will post more as soon as I can!  In other news, the folks over at Heroes were kind enough to feature me on their blog for a Guest Spotlight interview, you can check it out here. I'm so super excited to be involved in Heroes Con this June! 

Below is a Spider-Girl commission I painted up recently and at the very top is a cute little owl painting I made for a very special little girl (for her 1st Birthday!). Figured I'd post them up here and share.